


Diadem - Vance The Godfather

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1418]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 21:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21344704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Unbeknownst to most of NCIS, Vance is Tony's godfather. When he takes over as Director of NCIS, he sends Tony away as agent afloat despite his protests. What happens when the team finds out just who Vance is to Tony and how will Tony's secret crush, Tim, handle it?
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/Timothy McGee
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1418]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 12
Kudos: 62
Collections: Prompts for Cutsycat - NCIS (2018)





	Diadem - Vance The Godfather

**Author's Note:**

  * For [K (keirraizel)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keirraizel/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [K (keirraizel)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keirraizel/pseuds/K) in the [cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018) collection. 

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 03/19/2003 for the word [diadem](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/03/19/diadem).
> 
> diadem[ dahy-uh-dem ]  
noun  
a crown.  
a cloth headband, sometimes adorned with jewels, formerly worn by monarchs in Asia Minor and other parts of the East.  
royal dignity or authority.  
verb (used with object)  
to adorn with or as if with a diadem; crown.
> 
> This was requested by K (keirraizel) as part of my 2018 prompt challenge [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). The 2018 Prompts are closed, however, you can still sign up for the 2019 Prompts [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). More instructions are below if you wish to sign up. This prompt had many options. I removed the ones that I wasn't filling with this story. 
> 
> **Prompt:**
> 
> Leon Vance and Tony have always been careful to never expose their relationship: Vance is actually Tony's godfather. After Tony's mother dies, and his father disowns him at 12, Vance raised Tony. What happens when everyone finds out? How does McGee -- Tony's very secret crush and future boyfriend -- react?
> 
> **End Prompt**

They’d just been given their marching orders. Tony was being sent out as agent afloat, McGee was being sent to cyber crimes, and Ziva back to Israel while Gibbs got an entire new team. This didn’t sit right with Tony. He was also going to miss the hell out of his crush, since he wouldn’t get to see him every day. 

He left the office when Vance ordered, but instead of following the others down to the bullpen to gossip about what was going on while Vance briefed Gibbs, Tony decided to hang around upstairs. He was going to have a word with his godfather about this. Tony had been quite happy being a member of Gibbs’ team and he didn’t appreciate his godfather coming in and screwing with his life.

It was almost as bad as when Senior reappeared in his life. Tony had zero interest in having Senior in his life after the guy had disowned him at twelve. Tony wasn’t sure what the connection was between Vance and Senior, only that Vance somehow ended up raising him after Senior disowned him. 

His godfather was for the most part an improvement over Senior, though, when he pulled stunts like this Tony had to wonder what was going through his mind. He knew that they were trying to keep their relationship on the down low now that they were both working in the same office, but this seemed extreme. Tony nodded to Gibbs as he came out of Vance’s office.

Tony waited until Gibbs had headed down to the bullpen before barging into Vance’s office and shutting the door behind him. He really didn’t want everyone to hear this conversation. “What the hell is this, Leon? You can’t keep your godfather status of me a secret without shipping me halfway across the ocean?”

The toothpick in Vance’s mouth snapped. “Don’t exaggerate. The USS Seahawk is not going that far away. You’ll mostly be nearby.”

“Just at sea.”

”It’s not personal, Tony. I needed Gibbs on something else.”

“You know, I’ve been doing this job for almost 6 years now. I’m a damn good investigator. I can help Gibbs with whatever’s going on.”

“I’m afraid not. It’s above your clearance level.”

“My clearance level is the same as yours, isn’t it?”

“Not anymore.”

“This is bullshit.”

“I know you don’t like it, Tony, but trust me it’s for the best.”

“You don’t need to do this to keep our relationship a secret. It’s not like I’m suddenly going to put a diadem on my head and announce that I have a golden spoon in my mouth because my godfather is the director of NCIS.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this. I’m sorry, but for now the less you know the better. Everything will become clear later.”

“I’m an adult now, godfather. You don’t need to protect me from reality anymore.”

“I promise. I’m not doing this to protect you. Or well it’s at least not the only reason. I need you on this ship.”

“Promise me, this isn’t some ploy to keep our relationship a secret.”

“I promise.”

“And you promise that this isn’t a ploy to protect me.”

“I promise. I really do need you on this ship. Now go. Before the others get suspicious.”

Tony frowned, but left Vance’s office and headed down to the bullpen to join the others. 

“Did you get Vance to see reason, Tony? This is unacceptable.”

Tony shook his head. “Nope. He’s adamant about what he’s doing. You better start packing, Ziva.”

Ziva huffed. “I can’t believe that I’m being shipped back to Israel like a bad cold. I earned my place as an agent.”

“I’m being sent to be agent afloat. That’s basically as far away as you can send an American citizen, Ziva. So don’t get your panties in a twist.”

Ziva wrinkled her brow. “Why would I twist my panties.”

Tony waved dismissively. “It’s a saying. It means don’t become overly upset.”

Ziva wrinkled her nose. “That does not make sense. You americans have very strange idioms.”

Tony shrugged. “I guess this is the last we’ll see of each other for a while.” Tony hugged Ziva first before turning to Tim and giving him a hug as well. It was the closest he could get to admitting his feelings for Tim, right now. He turned towards Gibbs, so that it would seem like a team thing and not make anyone suspicious.

“Don’t even think about it, DiNozzo.”

Tony held up his hands in surrender. “Anyway I have to pack and see about subletting my apartment for while I’m gone and all that. So, I’ll see you guys later.” 

The team waved as Tony left. Tony quickly drove home. Just packing what he needed for the trip would be easy. Being agent afloat on a ship pretty much just required an extra large go-bag. 

It was packing up the apartment and getting it subletted that would be difficult. Tony blinked when his phone chimed with the notification sound that signalled he’d received an email. He took a quick look at the email and was surprised to see a message from McGee indicating that if Tony didn’t have time to get his apartment sublet before he left that McGee would be happy to help out.

Feeling a weight lifted off his shoulder, Tony immediately messaged back, “That would be great. Thanks Tim!”

He couldn’t help feeling like this would give him an excuse to talk to his crush more frequently even while he was at sea. Admittedly e-mail access would be limited on the aircraft carrier, but as they had to stay in contact with those on land he was sure there would be some access. Heck, they had a case where the computer geeks would play online games from a ship.

Maybe Tony would just need to make friends with the geeks to check his email. That could even be training for how to woo Tim. Tim had always protested when Tony accused him of being gay so Tim was either in the closet or straight. Neither of which would make a prospective relationship with him easy.

There was also the whole Vance was his godfather secret, which would be a significant issue once they finally entered into a relationship. He wouldn’t really want to keep it a secret from his boyfriend, but they also didn’t want it getting around the office. Tony wasn’t quite sure what to do about that, but that would have to wait until he was back on dry land.

For now, Tony called a storage unit place and rented one. Then he called his preferred moving company to come in and pack up everything in his apartment and take it to the storage unit he’d just rented. He threw the things he needed to take with him into a couple of go-bags before collapsing on his bed for the night.

The past few weeks had been quite stressful. Between Jenny’s death and finding out his godfather would be taking over as NCIS Director and then getting shipped out to agent afloat immediately, Tony didn’t know what to think. He’d already been in a bit of a turmoil due to his developing feelings for Tim and now this. It was all too much.

He just wanted to wake up and for things to go back to normal, but he knew that wouldn’t happen. Or if it did, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. He really wanted to call his godfather and yell at him some more, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good.

He just hoped that he wouldn’t be stuck on this aircraft carrier for too long. He really didn’t like being the only cop amongst a hundred or so sailors. Even worse than that, he was essentially isolated from everyone. He’d gotten a couple of emails from Tim and Leon, but that was about it and he’d already been on the ship for a couple weeks.

He really wished he knew what was going on back at the mainland. Both McGee and Vance were being tight lipped about whatever it was, which told Tony that something big was going down. He really hated being out of the loop. 

He was glad when a case came in that forced the team to work with him again. He was even happier when he was allowed to return to the MCRT after the case was wrapped up.

Of course, Tim had been awesome and found a lovely couple to rent his apartment, but now he was back sooner than expected so he had no place to stay. He’d already gotten Tim to agree to pick him up and as he broached his concerns, Tim waved them off. “It’s fine. You can stay with me.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. It’s no problem.”

Tony nodded. “Thanks, Tim.”

When Vance found out where he was staying, he was unimpressed. Tony calmly pointed out that Vance had a wife and kids now and it would be too crowded for Tony to stay with him. Leon didn’t like his response, but he understood it too. 

That didn’t mean that staying with Tim didn’t have its own complications. For one, it was a lot harder to keep Leon’s godfather status a secret. For another, being in such close quarters with his crush definitely increased the frequency with which he jerked off.

Tony was getting tired of making up excuses for why Leon was calling him that were ostensibly work related. His godfather didn’t call that frequently, only once or twice a week, but it was enough to get McGee’s suspicions up. Tony didn’t know how much longer he could keep McGee from finding out. 

The whole thing became moot, however, when a case landed Tony in the hospital with a bullet wound and a touch of amnesia. When Tony woke up, he had no idea where he was. He quickly deduced that it was a hospital, but he didn’t recognize any of the people in the room with him.

He felt like he should know them, but he couldn’t remember any of them. There were two males, one clearly older, and a female. This was so similar to how he’d woken as a kid after Vance took over his care that he called out for his godfather. 

“Who?”

“My godfather. He always sends people to watch over me like you. So where is he?”

The younger male exchanged glances with the older one and the female, but the other two looked as clueless as he did. “Who exactly is your godfather?”

Before Tony could answer, Vance stepped into his hospital room. “It’s ok, Tony. I’m here.”

The green-eyed one’s mouth dropped open. “You’re his godfather?” he blurted.

“Is this going to be a problem?”

The younger male with pretty green eyes immediately closed his mouth with a click before nodding yes and then quickly shaking his head, “No, sir. Not a problem. Just a surprise.”

“I trust you all understand to keep the knowledge that Tony is my godson to yourself.”

Heads nodded all around. The female and the older male had controlled their surprise better than younger man, but Tony had seen that they hadn’t know Leon was his godfather either. “Godfather? What’s going on?”

“You don’t remember?” Vance asked with a frown.

“No. Who are these people?”

A concerned look crossed Vance’s face and he pressed the button to call the nurse. When one appeared, Vance asked, “Can we get a doctor in here? He appears to have amnesia.”

What followed were a bunch of tests that Tony really didn’t want anything to do with, but he had no choice. The conclusion the doctor came to was that he had some memory loss spanning multiple years, but a full recovery was expected. He’d already started remembering some of the people that had been in his room.

He knew that the green-eyed male was his crush, Tim McGee. He hadn’t placed the other two, yet, but he believed the doctor when he said it was only a matter of time, especially since they both felt familiar to him. He was pretty sure that he’d called Tim pretty at least once before he remembered who he was. 

He was kind of embarrassed about that actually, but fortunately no one seemed to be making a big deal about it. Mostly, Tony wanted out of the hospital. He was perfectly fine physically. It was just his memory that was a little holey right now. The doctor said he could go home if he had someone who would watch over him.

“You could stay with Jackie and the kids,” Leon offered.

Tony shook his head. He really didn’t want to deal with kids especially ones he didn’t remember, right now. 

“I can take care of him, director. His stuff is at my place, anyway.”

It was obvious, that Leon wasn’t real impressed with this plan, but he nodded that it would be ok. 

“Thanks, Tim.” Tony just hoped that being in close quarters with Tim didn’t drive him completely bonkers. 

Of course, what actually happened was that as soon as they got back to Tim’s place, Tim turned to face him and demanded, “Did you really mean it when you called me, pretty?”

Tony shrugged, trying to avoid answering, but McGee wasn’t letting him get away with it. Finally, Tony gave in and admitted, “Yes.”

Before Tony could say anything further, Tim stepped up to him and pulled him into a kiss. At first, Tony didn’t respond out of shock, but he finally got with the program and returned the kiss. Apparently, he’d gained a boyfriend. He definitely wasn’t objecting.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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